A few years ago, I came across a photo of a lighting system designed by Michal Maciej Bartosik, although I didn’t know it at the time because the photo was uncredited. “Who did this?” I didn’t figure it out then, but the smart use of fluorescent tubes as structural components in a glowing dome stuck with me. Years later, I’m happy to have figured out who made it, and just how talented he is. Michal Maciej Bartosik studied architecture (and now lives) in Canada. A newer light sculpture/structure of his employs a structural principle popularized by Buckminster Fuller: Tensegrity.

Tensegrity has always made me a little nervous. It’s a very efficient way to hold something up, but there’s no redundancy: every member of the structure is critical to keep the structure standing. If a single cable snaps, it can cause the whole structure to collapse. So while I think these light sculptures are amazing, I have a hard time figuring out what happens when one of the tubes burns out.

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We’ve reached the end of our beautiful ride with Denise Nouvion and her lovely photos, but I have an extra surprise in store. Along with her final wallpaper, a beautiful image of a polaroid of a bike, we have a brand new track to preview from her the band she’s in, Memoryhouse. Pretty cool, if you ask me. I want to give a huge thanks to Denise for working with me on this. I think her images are lovely and I’m so happy they’ve been added to our pool of creative desktops.

These delicate and “oooooh pretty” glass sculptures are actually quite terrifying. Why? Because they represent some very nasty stuff– bugs- that have cause a lot of people a lot of pain. From top to bottom, Luke Jerram has made for us the SARS corona virus, HIV and (my personal favorite) a bacteriophage. Bacteriophages work by attaching to the surface of bacteria, drilling through the bacteria’s wall and injecting genetic material from the portion of the bacteriophage that looks like a head. It’s like a terrifying, microscopic hybrid of a spider, a needle, and the baby head from Toy Story.

It is significant that these are made of glass, and not something else, for a few reasons. For starters, science labs use a lot of glass. Not as much as they used to, since disposable plastics have invaded many bench tops, but glassblowing used to be an indispensable skill for microbiologists. Another reason, and I did not realize this until I read it on Jerram’s website, but viruses are too small to have any color. That is, the wavelength of light is larger than a virus. All the color on the images from electron microscopes is made up: some are colored for scientific reasons and others are colored just to look pretty. So even though the viruses rendered in glass are in ways more accurate, they’re also, in a strange way, prettier.

Cristina De Middel is a photojournalist. Her series “Afronauts” captures the narrative of Zambia’s failed attempt to put man on the moon in a dignified, triumphant light. Her dossier reads:

“Afronauts’ is based on the documentation of an impossible dream that only lives in the pictures.”

Zambia didn’t put space boots on the moon, but these photographs show a quilted portrait of not shattered, unattained dreams, but nationalist hope and determination. There’s some published pieces out there that tries to paint Zambia’s space ambitions in the 1960’s as an absurdity. If you wish to see Zambia unattained goals in that light, I can only wonder want you think of Newt Ginrich’s ambitions for a moon colony while running for office in a country that isn’t funding lunar exploration either. We all have ambitions. Here’s to the dreamers.

The work of Belgian artist and illustrator Sam Vanallemeersch is just incredible. Each of his images are filled with a crazy amount of energy and spontaneity. His work often leaves you dazed as you attempt to take in everything you’re looking at. After browsing through his portfolio(s) I was left feeling both overwhelmed and in awe.

The Antwerp-based artist also has an interesting approach to how he works – creating illustrations in two very different ways. Sometimes he works under the name of Kolchoz – working digitally and with gouache to create graphic-based illustrations with sharp lines and beautiful colors. Other times, he can be found working as Sovchoz – a looser and wilder version of himself, like an illustrator trapped in some coffee-soaked acid-trip. Both approaches to his work are amazing and envy-inducing. I’d thoroughly recommended you take the next half-hour off and simply gorge yourself on this mans incredible work.

The other night I took to Twitter to see if anyone had any good suggestions for a contemporary feeling sans-serif typeface for use in a project that I’m working on. I received a number of suggestions, so I thought I’d share five typefaces which were my favorites.

Alright Sans

This contemporary sans-serif, inspired by both grotesque and humanist models, is clean and prudent with a warm, friendly tone. It’s modest design that doesn’t feel at all stiff or bland. It has open apertures and roundabout economy that works exceptionally well across media and at reduced sizes. And with shorter-than-normal capitals and a tall x-height, it’s functional without becoming distracting, goofy, or unprofessional.

Aperçu

Aperçu is a sans-serif typeface designed by Brighton based studio The Entente. It was started in December 2009, and has been trialled and tested through a number of design commissions taken on by The Entente through 2010. The conceit behind Aperçu was to create a synopsis or amalgamation of classic realist typefaces: Johnston, Gill Sans, Neuzeit & Franklin Gothic.

Calibre

A geometric neo-grotesque, Calibre inspired by the rationality of Aldo Novarese’s seldom seen Recta. The now-defunct Nebiolo foundry released Recta in the late ’50s, designed by a team lead by Aldo Novarese. Like Novarese’s Microgramma & Forma, Recta seems to be an attempt to rationalise the genre. Unfortunately it’s marred by over optical correction and awkward branching—neither smooth nor sharp. However, Recta’s rationalisation of the neo-grotesque genre appealed to me and was a logical starting point for Calibre.

You can read a long and extremely interesting essay on the creation of Calibre, and it’s counterpart, Metric by clicking here.

Knul

Supria Sans

Supria Sans and Supria Sans Condensed is an extended family of 36 fonts designed by Hannes von Döhren. It contains two widths, six weights and three styles, including the curvy, feminine Italic as well as the more conventional Oblique. Although it is inspired by the utilitarian clarity of Swiss type design, subtle curves and fine detailing impart a more playful character to the whole Supria Sans family.

Day four of our series with Denise Nouvion has arrived, and another beautiful desktop along with it. Today’s image, for lack of a better term, is pretty epic, a cloudy mountain range off in the distance. I get a big Miyazaki vibe from this image, it’s spooky and cool. If you’re looking for an image to make you feel all zen like, this might be the one for you. Be sure to check back in tomorrow for the last image in the series.

I respect Thom Browne because he just doesn’t give a fuck. Well, I suppose that’s not entirely true, I think he doesn’t care about what anyone else thinks and has a lot of fun doing it. The images above are from his Fall 2012 runway show and boy what a doozy this collection is. To me the models look like preppy superheroes, which as it turns out, look pretty rad. You’ve got the ‘roided out HUlk types, which totally crack me up because you know those models weigh like 120 lbs. And then you’ve got the masked vigilantes, outfitted with leather, studs… and bow ties. I don’t claim to know what it means, but I certainly do enjoy it.